City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith
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Archbishop Wood has clearly begun to find its rhythm. 

A 1-3 start to the season left room for early pause, but it’s hard to deny a team that’s now beaten the two PIAA 6A state finalists from a year ago; after a win over Father Judge to start the month, Wood toppled Roman Catholic, 70-65, Wednesday night at the Community College of Philadelphia.

“I’m happy with where we’re at right now,” Archbishop Wood head coach John Mosco said. “We’ve felt like we’re going in the right direction, and we’re getting better each game.”

For Wood, Brady MacAdams led the way with 20 points, while Caleb Lundy added another 18; the two combined for 30 of the Vikings’ 38 points in the second half — MacAdams had 16 in the third frame, helping recover from a six-point halftime deficit. 

“(MacAdams and Lundy) settled in, they took what the defense gave them,” Mosco said. “They didn’t try to force anything. When we ran our stuff and they were patient, they got good shots.”

As for Roman, much of the scoring came from Bryce Presley, who had 23, and Sammy Jackson, who added another 22.

As far as the PCL standings are concerned, Wood’s Wednesday win moves the Vikings to within half a game of the top of the league at 4-1; with a win over Bonner-Prenide, Neumann-Goretti broke a tie between the conference’s two undefeated leaders, and remains in first at 4-0. At 3-1 in the league following its first PCL loss of the year, Roman now sits half a game behind Wood and a full game out of first.

With three straight league wins in hand, the Vikings will get a shot at N-G Sunday afternoon after visiting Archbishop Ryan Friday. 

“We had five out of our first six (PCL games) on the road, including Ryan Friday,” Mosco said. “And then we’ve got Neumann. There’s no rest for the weary.” 

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HS Girls: Audenreid 84, Imhotep 74

Audenreid and Imhotep’s girls basketball teams are quite familiar at this point. The two have matched up six times in the last three seasons — one for each regular season, and one in each year’s Public League title game. Of those six, Audenried’s won five, including all three league championship games in that stretch. 

Wednesday night’s regular season meeting held to form; the Rockets once again came out victorious, toppling Imhotep on the road by a final of 84-74 to remain unbeaten in Public League play. Both teams entered Wednesday’s battle with unblemished 5-0 conference records; they haven’t lost a league game to anyone but each other since 2023-24. 

HS Boys: St. Joe’s Prep 61, Cardinal O’Hara 45

After suffering back-to-back losses to start PCL play, St. Joe’s Prep is beginning to head back in the right direction as winners of its last two — this time in resounding fashion, beating O’Hara by 16 on the road. Julian McKee had a standout game for the Hawks, dropping 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting to go with six boards. Kaleb Hargrove led O’Hara with 14. 

HS Boys: West Catholic 54, Lansdale Catholic 52

In the night's closest PCL game, Kingston Wheatley did everything he could to make sure West Catholic picked up its second conference win, scoring 22 to push the Burrs past LC after trailing by five at the half. Lansdale was led by Ayden Lewis with 17. 

HS Boys: Archbishop Ryan 63, Devon Prep 59

Ryan picked up its second win in a row to improve to 3-2 in PCL play, winning a neck-and-neck battle with Devon Prep by four. Malik Hughes led the way for the Raiders with 18 points, while Kaden Brown tacked on 15.

D-I Men’s: Memphis 55, Temple 53

Temple put up a valiant effort trying to maintain its undefeated conference mark in a tough environment, but came up short at Memphis. The Owls trailed by 10 with eight minutes to go, and pulled to within two in the final minute; after a turnover by Memphis under 20 seconds to play, Temple had a chance to tie or take the lead, but couldn’t capitalize.

Wednesday’s loss snaps a seven-game win streak for Temple, which had moved into sole possession of first in the American. Temple got a balanced scoring effort in the loss; Gavin Griffiths had 15, Derrian Ford had 14, and Aiden Tobiason had 10. The three of them accounted for all of Temple’s points in the final eight minutes.

D-I Women’s: Saint Louis 66, La Salle 57

Since a promising 3-0 start in Atlantic 10 play, the La Salle women have dropped three in a row including Wednesday’s midday loss to Saint Louis. The Explorers’ previous two losses in the cold streak came to teams in the upper echelon of the A10, but a home loss to sub-.500 SLU was tough to swallow. 

The two teams went a combined 3-of-35 from three-point range — Saint Louis was 0-for-15 — and La Salle was ultimately doomed by its 30 percent field goal shooting and eight missed free throws. Ashleigh Connor led the way in defeat with 25 points. La Salle led by four entering the final quarter, but got outscored 20-7 to close things out.

D-I Men’s: Richmond 74, La Salle 53

The La Salle men struggled with a quality Richmond team on the road, losing by 21 despite entering halftime within four. Jaeden Marshall contributed a relatively inefficient 18 points to lead all Explorers scorers — he shot 6-of-16 from the field, while Josiah Harris logged eight points and eight boards.

D-I Men’s: St. Joe’s 68, St. Bonaventure 64

The Hawks closed on an 8-0 run to fend off a late Bonnies push and win their third straight, improving to 11-7 with a 3-2 Atlantic 10 mark. It was another productive night for Jordan Glover-Toscano, who had 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting and added three boards. 

St. Joe’s led by seven at halftime, and led by as many as 11 points in the early part of the second half, but had to fight back from down six with seven minutes to go.

D-I Women’s: St. Bonaventure 57, St. Joe’s 48

St. Joe’s entered Wednesday as winners of six of its last seven, but has now lost two of three, with road losses to the Bonnies and Davidson bookending a win over La Salle. In both recent losses, offense has been the struggle; St. Joe’s didn’t break 50 in either contest.

The Hawks shot 25 percent from the field and 13 percent from beyond the arc; Rhian Stokes led the way with 20 while Gabby Casey added 15 — the two accounting for all but 13 of St. Joe’s points. For the Bonnies, Spring-Ford alum Mackenzie Pettinelli logged significant minutes, picking up eight points and two boards. 

D-II Women’s: Arcadia 68, Misericordia 54

After a Jan. 10 loss at Stevens snapped a four-game win streak, Arcadia got back on the right side of the coin, beating Misericordia handily at home. The Knights got a game-high 19 points from Taylor Koenig, plus 15 from Abby Beam, and rode a 22-8 first frame to a comfortable victory. 

D-III Women’s: Ursinus 83, Haverford 73

Ursinus (9-5, 3-1 Centennial) picked up a pivotal win in order to keep pace in the early Centennial Conference standings, sitting just a game behind undefeated and nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins. The Bears earned a 10-point win with a balanced scoring effort; five different players scored in double figures, with Madison Smith’s 15 points leading the way. Haverford’s Audrey Jakway had a stunning 33 points in the loss.

D-III Men’s: Ursinus 94, Haverford 65

Ursinus made a major statement Wednesday, crushing Haverford to improve to 2-0 in Centennial Conference play. For Haverford, that’s the Fords’ third loss in a row, all of which coming in league games. Mohamed Toure dropped an impressive 25 points for Ursinus while shooting a red-hot 10-of-14 from the field; as a team, the Bears shot just over 50 percent on the game. 

D-III Women’s: Widener 67, Eastern 63

Eastern nearly pulled off a sizable upset, pulling within four in the final minute despite facing a double-digit deficit with five minutes to go, but the Pride shutdown a late push to snap a two-game losing streak. Widener had lost three of four since starting the season 8-1, and got its much-needed first conference win Wednesday night behind a dozen points apiece from Lindsay Kutz, RIley Stackhouse and Liliana Metrick. Jeriyah Johnson dropped 19 in a losing effort for Eastern.

D-III Men’s Widener 79, Eastern 77 (OT)

In a meeting of teams that certainly needed a win — both have started to turn the corner from recent extended losing streaks — and the Pride survived in overtime behind 21 from Myles Bright; Eastern got 23 from Olise Onyeka and 19 from Dejuan Taylor.